I can hang out in the back. There’s plenty to do to keep me busy. It’s not creepy at all. That last thing that I tell myself is a complete lie. It is creepy back there, especially since today isn’t a day where we have extra people unloading, organizing and stocking things.
This is one of the days of the week where hardly anyone is back here. It’s going to be completely silent unless someone happens to pop in.
Making my way into the back of the store, I find my Spotify playlist and turn up my volume. I can’t work in silence, not alone back here. The morning ends up going a lot quicker than I anticipate.
Eventually, I’m dancing, shaking my booty all over the back of the store as I organize, stock milk and do anything that I notice needs doing. Glancing at my phone activity tracker, I notice that I close a ring and have earned all of my steps by the time lunch rolls around.
Lifting my arms with a stretch, I make my way toward a crate to sit down for a few minutes before I attempt to figure out what to grab to eat.
I’m not even sure if I should be heading out to get food or not. I don’t want to upset people, since apparently that’s what my neck would do according to Brenda and Mark’s reactions.
I hear a noise and look over my shoulder, but nothing is there. With a small shiver, I decide to skip lunch and just slip outside and take in some sunshine.
Closing my eyes, I lean against the wall and feel the stucco of the building against my back as the sun beats down on me.
It’s hot, but it’s not unbearable, thankfully, especially since there’s no air conditioning in most of the back stockroom.
Even with my eyes closed, I can sense the dark shadow that blocks the sun from my body after a little while. Slowly, I open my eyes when it doesn’t move and I gasp at the sight in front of me.
“What are you doing? You scared me,” I hiss.
He tilts his head to the side, his eyes roaming over me and passing over my neck before he smiles. When he does, it’s a slow, sinister, evil grin.
“You know,” he begins. “I’ve been watching you, watching every single move that you’ve been making. Watching everything. You were always meant to be mine and now I’m taking what’s owed to me.”
“What?” I breathe.
He dips his chin, his hot breath washing over my face. My nose wrinkles at the stench. Booze and stale cigarette stench is the only thing that I can smell, mixed with some serious body odor.
“You’re mine now, Tulip. All mine.”
He lifts his hand and covers my mouth and my nose with it before he drags me away from my spot against the wall. I scratch at his arm, try to pry his grip off of me, but he’s too strong. There’s a car waiting just a few feet away with the trunk open. I didn’t notice it, not until now.
I let out a muffled scream as he shoves me inside and I try to stand up, to scream and fight, but before a sound escapes my lips, his fist comes hurling toward me and pain radiates throughout my head a second before everything goes black.
LOUIS
My workout is fucking fantastic. My body is beat to shit, and although I still feel like a complete fucking asshole for what I did to Tulip, I’ve been beating myself up so much that I know it will do nothing but push me to be better, in and out of the ring.
“Done for the day, go get some dinner and do an ice soak, you’re gonna need it,” Aaron announces before he just walks out of the room.
Looking over to Shawn, he smirks toward me and shakes his head a couple of times. “That guy is all fuckin’ business,” he mutters.
“No shit,” I snort.
But then I think about the little things that Aaron has said and done. I realize that it’s not true, he’s not solely business. He sees and does things, but isn’t loud about it and if you try to bring it up, he’ll get red in the face and pissed the fuck off.
Using a towel, I wipe the sweat from my face, head, and chest before I toss it into the basket by the door and start to make my way toward the kitchen. I frown when I look around and realize that Tulip isn’t here.
Glancing at the clock, my frown deepens. I’m a little late, which means she should be here. We had a date, and she’s not one to miss plans when we make them.
Deciding to check our bedroom, I flip on the light to see that it’s exactly how I left it earlier. There’s no sign of her anywhere.
Jogging toward the front door, I wrench it open and somehow expect to see her car parked in its spot, but it isn’t. The space that she’s deemed as hers is empty.
Digging my phone out of my pocket, I check to see if I have any notifications from her. There’s nothing, not a missed text, fucking nothing. Finding her name in my contacts, I call her.
The phone rings and rings. Nothing. My heart sinks, my entire body trembles with the thought of something happening to her. All I can think is that she’s hurt somewhere, aftereffects from last night from me choking her and now she’s passed out or her car has rolled into a ditch.
Fuck.
Running into my room, I grab a shirt and pull it on over my head. I debate calling Ford to come with me. He’s busy, I know that he is, but since the sun has started to set, maybe he can help me look for her.
Finding his name in my phone, I start to jog out to my truck when Shawn calls my name. Pausing, I look behind me to see that both Shawn and Aaron are watching me.
“Tulip is missing,” I rasp.
“Louis?” Ford says in my ear.
“C’mon boy,” Aaron says to Shawn, and together they walk toward me. Aaron takes the keys from my hand and the three of us walk out to my truck.
“The fuck, Louis, what is going on?” Ford snaps.
“Tulip is missing,” I repeat.
There’s a moment of silence and I know that he’s reliving the moment that Channing went missing over a year ago. We had to look for her all over town, only to discover that her ex had taken her.
An image of Joey pops into my head. He wouldn’t, would he?
“Where you at?”
“My house, we’ll come and get you,” I bark before I end the call.
Strapping my seatbelt on, I give Aaron instructions on how to get to Ford’s place. He grunts, but otherwise doesn’t say a word. After driving down Ford’s ridiculously bumpy road, hearing Aaron cuss that fucking road with each jerk of the truck, we finally arrive at the front of his house.
Ford jumps into the back seat next to Shawn and Aaron turns the truck around, bitching the entire drive down Ford’s dirt road all over again.
It would be comical if I wasn’t so fucking worried.
“You can’t get ahold of her on her phone?” Ford asks once we’re off his property and on the county road heading toward town.
My eyes are scanning each side of the road, looking for signs of her car on the way to the store. Luckily, there is really only one road to take to get there.
Sure, there are a few back roads, but none that she would take unless there was a good reason for it, like an accident that closed down the main roads.
“You guys get in a fight or anything?” Ford asks.
There’s a moment of silence and Aaron makes a noise in the back of his throat. Shawn grunts, but I know how we left things after my nightmare. I know without a doubt that Tulip wasn’t upset or scared.
“Had a bad dream, she tried to wake me up and I choked her out, but she was fine when she left. We’d talked. Hell, she was more than fine,” I grumble.
Ford chuckles. “Fuck, you just calmly explained how you choked your woman out. Louis, what the fuck, man?”
I almost laugh, but I’m too terrified. Too fucking worried that someone has her, that Joey is hurting her and I’m here riding around town wondering where the fuck she is. I’ve never felt so fucking helpless in my entire life.
Closing my eyes, I now completely understand how Rylan felt. Why he looked like he wanted to rip his fucking skin off when Channing was missing and then when we found her and made him stay outside while Wyatt went in to get her.
Fucking torture.
Chapter Twenty-Four
LOUIS
The grocery store appears and immediately my eyes are drawn to her car. It’s there. I don’t know if it’s a settling feeling, or worse feeling to see it there and yet, she hasn’t called me back. My phone has been completely silent.
Aaron parks next to her car, how he knew it was hers, I don’t know. The only explanation is that the man sees way more than he lets on.
Clearing my throat, I open the door and inhale a deep breath. I don’t know what to expect, where she is or what’s going to happen, but I’m not going to sit around and wait either.
I need to find her.
Now.
“Car’s locked,” Ford shouts.
Together, the four of us silently walk into the grocery store. I glance around the registers, looking for her signature blonde hair, but she’s not there. I hear a woman’s gasp and I look over to one of her co-workers who is looking at me in nothing other than horror.
“Can I help you?” a man’s voice spits from behind me.
Spinning around, I lift my chin and look down to the manager of the store. I’ve noticed him watching Tulip a little too closely, and judging by the narrowed gaze that’s pointed directly at me, he thinks that I’ve abused her.
“Where is she?” I demand.
He blinks, his brows furrowing in the middle. “What do you mean where is she?”
“He didn’t stutter, Mark. Where the fuck is Tulip?” Ford grinds out as he lifts his finger and points it directly in the center of Mark’s chest.
Mark tries to bat his finger away, but Ford isn’t budging, he has at least six inches and forty pounds on the guy.
Me? I’m keeping my hands loose at my sides, knowing that if I lift my fists, I’ll be banned from the ring because I will beat the shit out of this guy.
“She worked in the back all day because someone fucked her up and I couldn’t have a bruised up employee working where the whole town could see her,” he hisses. “She was off an hour ago. If she didn’t go home to you, man, I can’t say that I’m surprised.” He crosses his arms over his chest with a smirk firmly planted on his lips.
I shake my head slowly, trying to rein in my emotions of frustration and anger. Clearing my throat, I tilt my head to the side, my gaze shifting to Aaron who also shakes his head slowly.
“Smart asses are never worth it,” Aaron reminds me.
It’s something he’s reminded me of often during our relationship. “Okay. Her car is in the parking lot, she’s not answering her phone. I don’t care if you think she should leave me, the fact is, she hasn’t. Her car is here, where is she? I’m worried,” I admit.
Mark blinks and takes a step to the side. “She was supposed to be in the back today. I put her there to stock and organize things,” he mutters almost as if he’s talking to himself as he starts to walk toward the back of the store.
Following behind him, the four of us move quickly, staying near him as he begins to walk faster, and faster, the closer he gets to the back room obviously becoming more and more worried with each step that he takes.
“Split up, call out if you see anything,” I shout as soon as we are in the darkened area of the store.
It’s eerily quiet, not a single person is back here. Which means that Tulip was completely alone and that makes my stomach drop. Something happened to her. I can feel it in my gut. Fuck. I knew it the second she wasn’t home. Something is really fucking wrong.
“I got nothin’,” Shawn shouts.
“Nothing,” Mark echoes.
“Fuck,” Aaron growls.
“Come out the back,” Ford barks.
The three of us still in the building make our way to the back where it looks like the trucks pull up to unload their stock. There on the ground. It stares up at me, mocking me. It’s her phone. I know it’s hers the second that I see it.
Crouching down, I don’t touch the device. “Call the police. Now,” I bark, my eyes focused on Mark’s.
He nods woodenly as he digs his phone out of his back pocket. I watch as he puts it up to his ear before shifting my gaze back to the device.
Lifting my eyes, I look around the back parking lot, at the loading and unloading area. It’s quiet back here.
Secluded.
A car could pull up, throw her inside, then pull off without anyone being the wiser. But in Gallup? That shit just isn’t likely.
But other than Mark and a few employees, who would even know that she was back here? Mark said that it was a decision he made after seeing her, it’s not like this is where she normally works.
“Who would take her?” Shawn asks, sounding his young age and fucking sad.
“You talk to Joey lately?” Ford asks, his words mirroring what I’m thinking.
Pressing my lips together, I lift my eyes to Mark’s. “Police are on their way.”
“You got cameras out here?”
His face pales and that’s when I know that he doesn’t. Fuck. Closing my eyes slowly, I wonder what the fuck I’m going to do.
“Wyatt and Rylan should be off work. Want me to have them go around and try to find Joey?” Ford offers.
Rylan doesn’t need to get into trouble, hell, none of my friends do. I think about telling him no, but I have to wait here for the police and those are precious minutes that will be wasted.
“Yeah. I don’t know where he’s living. All I know is that he cheated on Tulip with a girl named Raylee. That was the final straw that made her leave. But that’s all I got. You know…” I begin. “He picked her up from work the other day, when I was late, and she had started walking home. I was pissed that she got in the pickup with him, but why was he even around?”
Ford growls, turning away from me without saying a word, I watch as he puts his phone to his ear and starts barking out orders, presumably to Wyatt and Rylan.
“What about that friend of hers at the club, I don’t know her name. Tall, pretty girl.”
“Charlie,” Mark murmurs. “She’s not with her.”
Turning around slowly, I lift my chin and look down my nose at him. “And you know this because?”
He looks to the side, then lifts his gaze back to me. “Charlie was with me all night the past two nights.”
“Where?” I demand.
“Her place. I live with my mom.”
Mark’s face turns pink and if I wasn’t so fucking panicked, I would find that tidbit of information downright hilarious. Nothing is funny right now though.
“Get her on the phone. See if she’s heard from her,” I shout as a police cruiser pulls up.
I’m bummed that Sheriff Robby has left to work in Austin, at least I know who he is and I could attempt to demand he get to work on this, reminding him of how the shit went down with Channing.
“Hernandez,” Ford drawls as the man begins to make his way toward us.
I recognize him from the day that Hutton’s beauty shop was vandalized. Hopefully he’ll help us, God, I fucking hope so anyway. Because I know without a doubt that something is very fucking wrong here.
TULIP
My head is pounding. I’ve experienced pain like this before. It’s dark and every time the car stops or turns, I’m thrown either against the back seat or the side, which is starting to make the rest of my body achy.
The car comes to a stop and I mentally brace myself, but it doesn’t lurch forward again. Instead, the engine turns off and I hear the door slam closed.
Oh my God, this is it. This is when I die. The trunk opens and instead of the bright sun, darkness shrouds the sky behind Joey’s father.
He doesn’t say anything as he reaches forward and roughly pulls me out of the trunk. I expect him to pick me up, but he doesn’t. Instead, he wraps his hand too tightly around my forearm and pulls me behind him as he starts to swiftly walk forward.
I don’t attempt to shrug out of his grasp. I’m in too much pain and trying to figure out where we are and where I can
attempt to run for help. Branches crunch beneath my feet and I narrow my eyes as a cabin comes into view.
Without a word, he opens the small cabin front door and throws me inside. My entire body flies forward before I fall onto the floor. Pain radiates up my arms as I attempt to break my fall when I land on the hard ground.
Slowly, I lift my gaze to meet his, but he’s not looking at me at all. In fact, he’s acting as if I don’t exist as he locks the door, flicks on the light and starts to move around the cabin. Turning my head, I try to take in the place.
It smells like dust and dirt, like must. It smells like an old shack and it’s then that I realize exactly where I am. We’re at a fucking hunting cabin, out on Joey’s father’s hunting land, about two hours from Gallup.
Joey and I came out here after our first dance and as cliché as it sounds, this is where I lost my virginity. It was the one and only time that Joey attempted to be romantic. He was fifteen with his driver’s permit and used his father’s truck to drive us out here.
There is nothing for miles around us. Nothing but rocks, cactus, hills, cedar trees, live oak trees, and live animals. As if on cue, the sound of a pack of coyotes howl somewhere outside of the small building.
The cabin has only one bathroom, a microscopic kitchen, a wood-burning stove, and a loft where there is a mattress on the floor for a bed.
“Why did you bring me here?” I whisper.
Silas turns slowly and stares at me. I’ve always called him Mr. Perry, but I have a feeling that type of formality between us is over. His eyes slowly move down, then back up my body until his eyes find my own. I watch as a smile pulls up at his lips.
“You know why, Tulip,” he rasps.
Shaking my head, I don’t make a move to get up off of the floor, too afraid to even twitch and startle him. He doesn’t seem right, doesn’t seem himself. Not that I’ve really seen him much over the last few years.
Mr. Perry was always just Joey’s dad, he didn’t say much while I lived there. Never really did much either. Went to work, came home and sat on the couch. Watched some football while drinking a few beers, then went to bed.
KILLER: An Unfit Hero Novel Page 18